Materializing Thailand / Penny Van Esterik.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Van Esterik, Penny.

Series:

Materializing culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Material culture.

Sex role.

Thailand--Social conditions.

Thailand.

Social conditions.

Sex role--Thailand.

Buddhism and culture.

Material culture--Thailand.

Physical Description:

xi, 274 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Berg, 2000.

Summary:

Thailand has become well known throughout the world for wonderful cuisine, great package holidays, sumptuous temples, and beautiful textiles. Noticeably absent from this image is Thailand's seedier side -- the world of child exploitation, rampant prostitution, and AIDS. Thailand maintains its appeal by slipping the ugly and painful out of sight and by promoting women as exotic visual icons through beauty contests, state rituals, and the sex trade.

This book explores the construction of gender in Thailand and in particular the role Bangkok plays in establishing gender relations for the whole of the country. Examining the historical and cultural processes underlying Thai public culture, Penny Van Esterik demonstrates how the materiality of the Thai world shapes gender relations and how Buddhism discourages essentialisms, including fixed binary gender identities. Throughout the book, appearances are shown to be critically important, and the essentialism of gender is maintained through display, public presentations, and everyday material practices.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-268) and index.

ISBN:

1859733069

1859733115

OCLC:

44189978